W

hile president-elect Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo held the first tête-à-tête with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Wednesday, politicians remained skeptical that the conversation would lead to a possible merger between their political parties.

Democratic Party executive chairman Syariefuddin Hasan, who has said the party'€™s future political alignment would unlikely be on the table in Bali, insisted the party '€œwill remain outside [government] as a counterbalance'€.

Syariefuddin also played down whether his party would offer something to support the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P)-led coalition at the House of Representatives.

'€œThere are no such terms of exchange in the House,'€ he said on Wednesday.

The party'€™s deputy executive chairman, Max Sopacua, said they were waiting for future developments, including the results of a new House special committee aimed at setting up a new procedure to select the next House speaker, a consequence of a recent deliberation on the revision of the Legislative Institution Law, also known as MD3.

'€œWe'€™ll see the developments. I don'€™t know what [Yudhoyono and Jokowi] will discuss in Bali. We have also just named the special committee leaders,'€ said Max.

In a meeting on Wednesday, which House Deputy Speaker Priyo Budi Santoso from the Golkar Party deemed would be tough, with obvious competition between Jokowi'€™s Gotong Royong Coalition and the coalition of the losing candidate Prabowo Subianto, the committee named the Democratic Party'€™s Benny K. Harman as the head of the special committee and Golkar'€™s Aziz Syamsuddin, the Prosperous Justice Party'€™s (PKS) Fahri Hamzah and the National Mandate Party'€™s (PAN) Toto Daryanto as deputies.

All leaders of the special committee came from Prabowo'€™s Red-and-White Coalition.

'€œThe [competition] between the Red-and-White coalition and Jokowi'€™s [coalition] became apparent as both camps were touting names,'€ Priyo said.

The MD3 Law revision stipulates that a House speaker should be selected via a voting mechanism, a departure from the non-formal procedure of the previous 10 years.

Observers speculated that the revision, passed only a day before the July 9 presidential election, was a move by Jokowi'€™s rival camp to oppose his administration in the event he was successful in the election.

Comprising 30 lawmakers representing each of the nine party factions at the House, the special committee has around one month to set up the mechanism.

'€œOnce the mechanism settles, the House will be full of arguments as Jokowi'€™s rival camp will play its role as the opposition,'€ Priyo added.

PDI-P deputy secretary-general Hasto Kristiyanto stopped short of speculating whether the Bali meeting would open doors for a merger between the PDI-P and the Democratic Party.

He only said that as a symbol of harmony and balance, Bali would bring positive energy for cooperation between the outgoing and incoming administrations.

'€œThere will be a lot of space for communication between Jokowi'€™s team and Yudhoyono'€™s Cabinet. That'€™s where communication with the House will be built,'€ he said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Jokowi said he would offer nothing to Yudhoyono to entice the latter to give his support, hinting he did not engage in such political lobbying.

'€œThere'€™s no such thing. Ask the party regarding the coalition,'€ Jokowi said.

Contacted separately, PAN executive Tjatur Sapto Edy from the Red-and-White Coalition also played down the possibility that PAN would join Jokowi'€™s coalition in the House.

'€œTo join [them] is hard. We will keep watching [as opposition] the administration [of Jokowi],'€ he said.

Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) political expert Siti Zuhro said the two parties would unlikely merge as there was no chemistry between their leadership.